What might become a Downtown Jacksonville office consolidation of 4,000-5,000 jobs began a decade ago when Germany-based Deutsche Bank started analyzing the price of doing business in high-cost cities.
One of the eventual lower-cost cities it moved into was Jacksonville, where Deutsche Bank had grown to least 1,400 full-time equivalent jobs by the end of last year.
“It’s been tremendous growth,” said Deutsche Bank Jacksonville Managing Director Michael Fleming at a presentation Tuesday.
The story of the bank’s expansion into Jacksonville hasn’t been shared in much detail publicly. The picture became a little clearer when Fleming presented the background at the University of North Florida Coggin College of Business Spring Speaker Series at the Herbert University Center. About 50 people attended.
Fleming, a Jacksonville native and retired brigadier general, earned an MBA at UNF.
When asked by a participant about future growth, alluding to the expectation that Deutsche Bank is looking for a site for its growing complex of functions and employees, Fleming said nothing has been announced and he couldn’t comment.
Southbank JEA property is considered a primary focus. Area developer Peter Rummell has said he understands the consolidation could grow to 4,000-5,000 jobs.
Future aside, Fleming talked about the past to present.
The “Journey to Jacksonville” that began with that 2004 analysis led to a “structured operating model” to create a high-quality labor force at a substantially lower cost; build capacity; and create a network of interconnected operation hubs.
Deutsche Bank management ap–proved it in 2005. Implementation began that October. The first employees were hired in November 2005 in India and the first positions moved in 2006.
The model soon evolved to four distinct types of locations:
Onshore: Frankfurt headquarters, London operations and New York operations.
Nearshore: Other United States and United Kingdom locations
Offshore: India, Philippines
Other markets: Locations that require work within the country because of regulations.
In late 2007, Deutsche Bank began to build “nearshore” sites and the key site selection criteria included access to a talent pool, accessibility and the time zone.
Jacksonville became a primary focus because of its:
• Existing real estate footprint. Deutsche Bank occupies most of the five-building, 200,000-square-foot Meridian Business Park in Southside as well as space in two other buildings, totaling nearly 300,000 square feet.
• Financial support packages from the state and city.
• Availability of talent.
• Proximity to New York operations
• Business climate favorable and conducive for growth
• Significant cost savings in operational costs
• Deutsche Bank’s relationships with the JAX Chamber and the “high level of engagement” with the city
• “Genuine level of excitement about DB”
• Support and connections within the community
“Not only was it important then, it’s important now,” Fleming said of the factors.
Deutsche Bank opened the Jacksonville Global Business Service Centre in July 2008. That was followed by other bank businesses: legal, compliance and global technology (IT).
In 2010, front office operations were initiated in Jacksonville, growing to more than 250 jobs by year-end 2013. Those front-office areas included commodity sales and trading; emerging markets debt; equities structuring; municipal trading; asset wealth management, and other finance positions.
The group technology and operations jobs include security, financial and trade services; collateral and change management; and global loan operations and technology production.
Deutsche Bank also has a global IT command center in Jacksonville that monitors all bank elements throughout the world.
Deutsche Bank filed plans in January 2013 to renovate space for the Global Technology Command Center.
The db.com website said Global Technology provides the technology services and solutions that enable Deutsche Bank to support the bank´s clients and more than 100,000 employees across 3,000 locations globally.
There also are jobs in the legal and compliance fields.
Fleming also outlined what Deutsche Bank considers the benefits for employees to live in Jacksonville because the company’s talent mix includes local talent, talent willing to move to Jacksonville, targeted bank relocations and military veterans.
Financial benefits include the lack of a state income tax in Florida and no personal income tax in the city; housing affordability; and a cost of living “substantially lower than in most metropolitan areas.”
“We have local talent and talent willing to move,” Fleming said, also referring to The Wall Street Journal report in October extolling Jacksonville’s virtues to Deutsche Bank.
“Work-life balance is a key benefit,” he said.
Fleming also talked about the Jacksonville location’s employee diversity and the career paths available — investment banking, trading, technology, human resources and risk management.
“We have high standards and we have employees who meet those standards,” he said.
Fleming outlined the bank’s commitment to Jacksonville, including being named among the “Top Companies That Care” for two consecutive years by Jacksonville Magazine as well as awards for its volunteer service; its leadership role in developing the Jacksonville Military Veterans Coalition; its almost $100,000 in employee donations (before the bank’s matching funds); and its partnership with nonprofits, schools and community events.
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